23 Jumpin – Sincere Café At Ulu Tai Seng

Cafes in Tai Seng? Yes that industrial area. Cafes in Singapore are opening up at more ulu places, fuelled by cheaper rental and potential large working crowd as customer base.

I made my way to The Commerze Building at Irving Place (a 5 minute walk from Tai Seng MRT station), and discovered not just one, but 1, 2, 3,4, 5, 6 new cafes and salad bars in an entire row.

The strange situation was, all the shops were adorned in black tinted doors, thus you could not see what the inside looked like. To a café goer, shouldn’t the interior and ambience play a big part?

I picked a shop ‘blindly’. The café that popped out was 23 Jumpin, purely attracted to its name.

There was no connection to 22 Jump Street though, the name inspired by the mysterious number ‘23’. Remember that Jim Carrey movie?

The interior was rather minimal, with not much décor to speak of. Owner Gary revealed that they save on deco, and would to be able to provide “a greater bang for the buck”.

So, do not judge a café JUST by how it looks. (Is that possible?)

23 Jumpin served a number of brunch and savoury items, such as Eggs Benedict ($14), Pork Goulash Stew with Baguette ($12), Duck Confit ($16) and Creamy Mushroom & Chicken Pasta ($12). All at nett prices.

My Jumpin’ Ultimate Breakfast ($15) was part delicious, part average. I particularly liked the bacon which tasted somewhat like ‘bak kwa’, and succulent bratwurst sausage. The scrambled eggs could be milkier, and do with some more seasoning.

Their star dessert was the Jumpin’s Original Cotta ($6), said to be created by accident, different from the classic panna cotta not only in appearance but in taste and texture. Dark chocolate based, smooth, light, not overly sweet.

23 Jumpin’ is a no-fuss café, and demonstrated some sincerity with most of the items made-in-house, and actually taste not too bad.

Now, all it needs, or can I add the entire row of café needs, is much more publicity and a very good reason for hipster café hoppers to venture their way to this remote part of Tai Seng.